LONDON (AP) – Jon Watts was 18 years old when he woke up in a jail cell and decided he needed to change.
He enrolled for every course he could find, from math to business. But he says it was a program set up by Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, which gave him a “passion for food” and a career as a chef when he was released from prison 3 1/2 years later. has.
“I was a young boy in jail,” Watts, now 32, told The Associated Press. “It helped shape me to be what I want to be a good person, and it set me up to believe in myself and believe that I can achieve things.”
After Philip’s death last week At age 99, politicians and world leaders rushed to pay tribute his lifetime of service to his wife, Queen Elizabeth II, and to the British nation. For many people across the country, however, his award was the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award, a program that seeks to give young people the skills and confidence they need to succeed.
Participants in the Duke of Edinburgh Award must complete volunteering, improve their physical fitness, learn new skills and go on expeditions to earn each of three gradually more difficult levels of achievement – bronze, silver and gold. More than 6.7 million people between the ages of 14 and 24 have taken part in the UK and the program has expanded to 130 countries since Philip founded it in 1956.
The program has become such a part of British life that members of Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s cabinet have recently mesmerized each other with stories about how they earned gold awards. Johnson, however, joked that some may have exaggerated their achievements.
“I will leave it to the House to speculate who claims to have received a gold award and who has won a bronze,” Johnson told British lawmakers in the House of Commons this week. “But I believe the ministers spoke to millions of people – across the country and around the world – who felt that the Duke had touched their lives in some way.”
The award came from Philip’s own experience at Gordonstoun School in Scotland, where he earned a similar prize, called the Moray Badge, before World War II. After the war, principal Kurt Hahn approached his former student with the idea of expanding the program to give young people in the UK a sense of accomplishment through out-of-classroom learning experiences.
While the program enables young people to pursue their own interests and design their own challenges, the unifying element is that it is meant to push them to test their limits, to build self-confidence and to develop independence, says Luke Levine (23) received a gold award before becoming a volunteer for the organization.
For his final expedition, Levine was part of a group that marched through Snowdonia National Park in Wales for three days, battling strong winds and bad weather as they climbed a 3,000-foot mountain and a team member who was with asthma struggling, helped. This sense of self-sufficiency enabled Levine to emerge as a transgender man.
“I just felt like I was in a place where I learned confidently,” he said. “I think it really helps me make a journey.”
Watts had his own journey to complete.
He said that after leaving school without an education at 16, he became involved in gangs in his hometown of Oxford. After an incident in which another young man was stabbed with a knife, Watts was convicted of grievous bodily harm and sentenced to 6 1/2 years in prison.
He decided to pursue the Duke of Edinburgh’s award after hearing a speech from representatives of the Reading Football Club, which funded the program in prison.
Two prison officers helped him design a program that followed a national professional cooking course. He learned all the basics, from good kitchen hygiene to how to scale a fish. For the community service department, he volunteered at the Samaritan Crisis Line and answered calls from people struggling with suicidal thoughts.
Watts’ first expedition was an overnight stay on the prison’s soccer field with guards watching. After moving to the prison’s relocation unit in preparation for release, Watts and other inmates were able to plan proper journeys through the Chiltern Hills near London and into the Brecon Beacons, a rugged Welsh mountain range where British soldiers do survival training.
Watts says when he met Philip during a reception for young people who had received their awards, the duke released one of his famous politically incorrect comments and asked if he should wear a ‘ball and chain’ on his expedition. Watts did not take offense.
“I thought it was quite funny, just because meeting Prince Philip at any one time is an overwhelming experience for everyone.” “It made me laugh, and I think that was his goal.”
While preparing for his release from prison, Watts went to work at one of the restaurants, Jamie Oliver’s restaurants, and he had to sidestep offers to go to the bar after closing time.
After his release, he spent five years with Oliver and then left to start his own catering business, which won corporate and event contracts. While the job is on hold due to the coronavirus pandemic, he now works as a chef for three private families and shows recipes such as crispy chili beef with noodles, truffle chicken Milanese and a ‘share’ garlic bread on social media.
Although his years in prison are long gone, and it would be possible for him to obscure his past, Watts talks about the difficult times so that others who are struggling will know that all is not lost.
After all, that’s what a gold award winner really means.
“I’m part of his legacy,” Watts said of the late Duke of Edinburgh. “Every day when I work and when I cook food and put the food on a plate, it may be a little far-fetched, but it’s also a little legacy of Prince Philip.”
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For AP’s full coverage of Prince Philip’s death, go to https://apnews.com/hub/prince-philip